In recent years, hard disks (HDD: Hard Disk Drive) have been installed in image forming devices such as digital copiers, printers and the like as a non-volatile storing device for storing large volumes of image data. In these types of image forming devices, the hard disk may be used for the purpose of storing image data from an original document so that it can be subsequently searched for and reused, or it may be used for supplementing insufficient volatile memory capacity by temporarily storing image data from an original document by page with a prescribed timing, to an image output device.
When the hard disk is used for the former purpose, the image data which is written on the hard disk is managed by a file managing system such as FAT (File Allocation Table) and the like, and the image data can be subsequently searched for and read by the user specifying image data which is to be subsequently reused and the file name thereof.
When the hard disk is used for the latter purpose, since it is necessary to ensure writing and reading speed for the image data, the data reading and writing are usually performed by a managing system which is different from the abovementioned file managing system such as the FAT and the like.
For example in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2002-029101(A), technology is disclosed in which a plurality of continuous fixed unit recording regions of a fixed size obtained by recording one page of compressed image data for the original document as one data item, are set on a hard disk, and compressed image data for one page of a document is written in the unit recording region on the disk.
Japanese Patent Publication No. H06-131126(A) discloses an image processing apparatus in which the image data is separated and stored in zones (external zones and internal zones) on the hard disk with different processing speeds, and it is thus possible to perform a prescribed operation without reducing processing speed.
Japanese Patent Publication No. H10-032690(A) discloses technology in which the an image processing apparatus comprises a plurality of hard disks, and when one hard disk capacity reaches its limit, storing is done in the empty region of another hard disk.
As described above, since writing and reading of data in hard disks is performed by different managing systems according to purpose for its use, in the prior art, in order to use the hard disk for two purposes, it was necessary to install two hard disks, and there was a cost problem.